BOSTON — Senate President Therese Murray and other Senate leaders Monday unveiled a bill to overhaul welfare in Massachusetts, including requiring photo identifications on electronic benefit transfer cards and creation of a program to connect able-bodied applicants with jobs before they receive benefits.

Murray said the welfare system is stagnant and the Senate wants to shake it up, while helping recipients.

"If you are able-bodied, we have a full employment program for you," Murray said.

Under one change, the state Department of Transitional Assistance would help develop a "job diversion" program to link able-bodied welfare applicants with jobs before they apply or receive any benefits.

Also, under a proposed requirement, applicants would have to search for a job prior to receiving cash assistance and would need to provide the state with specific information about their job search or risk losing benefits.

"We're still reviewing it but based on just the bullet points we have, it is actually really quite encouraging," Patrick told reporters. "It emphasizes that welfare is or ought to be a way forward, not a way of life. It gives to the DTA some additional tools and some resources to deal with some of the concerns we all have around program integrity."

The Senate move to reform welfare comes after two reports were critical of the system.

In January, the state inspector general issued a report that estimated that almost 10 percent of families on welfare are able to collect benefits from the state Department of Transitional Assistance without having to provide the proper documentation.

Auditor Suzanne M. Bump, who testified on her findings before a legislative committee on Monday, issued a report last month that said the state agency could not account for 30,500 blank electronic benefit cards shipped to five regional offices.

Bump also found that the agency was not using information from the Social Security Administration to verify applicants' information and ensure that benefits were going only to their eligible intended recipients.

Bump's audit reported 1,164 cases where welfare benefits valued at $2.4 million continued to be sent to recipients after they were reported to be dead or to recipients using a dead person's Social Security number.

Typically, a single mother with children is on welfare, called transitional aid to families with dependent children, and collects a monthly benefit of $456.

Currently, 46,894 families receive the aid, or less than half the number that received benefits in 1995, when the last welfare reform law was approved.

In order to restrict fraud, the bill would require photos of recipients older than 18 on all EBT cards and require the welfare fraud hotline number to be printed on all newly issued EBT cards. All EBT cards would be required to have photos by Aug. 1 of next year.

Under current law, a recipient is limited to receiving welfare for two years in any five-year period. An able-bodied recipient must work 30 hours a week if her youngest child is of a certain age.

Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat and chairman of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, said the bill would carry a price, including $8 million for vouchers for child care to expand employment of recipients, $5 million for putting photos on EBT cards and $15 million for subsidies for health insurance for businesses and recipients.

"Meaningful reforms require meaningful investments," Brewer said.

The bill also would:

-- Redesign the current program to match recipients with full-time employment. A quasi-public state agency would work with businesses, community colleges and other groups to find jobs.

-- Require the state to develop "economic independence goals" for recipients of cash assistance.

-- Make it easier for recipients to work, including increasing the monthly work-related expense deduction from a recipient's gross income from $90 to $150.

-- Make pregnant teens eligible for a shelter program at the start of their pregnancy.

-- Require children 16 years old or less to attend school in order to be eligible for state- or municipally subsidized housing. The current law is 14 years old.

-- Create penalties for store owners who fail to check a photo on an EBT card or other documentation showing the recipient is authorized.

-- Require applicants or recipients to sign under the penalties of perjury when verifying information for their eligibility.

-- Exempt people from work requirements if they are 66 years old, up from the current 60.

The bill, if approved, would be the first major overhaul of welfare since 1995. That 1995 law dramatically reduced the welfare rolls from 103,000 families to the current count.